Laser direct-writing for microfabrication

Digital manufacturing constitutes a real industrial revolution that is transforming the production processes from the early stages of research and development to mass production and marketing. The biggest difference in comparison with old fabrication methods is the possibility to perform changes in the pattern design just by using mouse clicks instead of modifying an already fabricated prototype, which results in faster, cheaper and more efficient fabrication processes. For example, new technologies enabling the production of printed electronic devices on flexible substrates and compatible with roll-to-roll processing methods would result in cheaper fabrication costs than the traditional batch processing of silicon wafers. Such fabrication methods comprise a series of processing steps which are applied to the substrates while they are moving on rolls in the fabrication line. Therefore, it is desired that the new technologies can work at high speeds allowing at the same time the production of miniaturized features. Lasers are a versatile tool that can meet the demands of flexibility, speed, resolution and compatibility with roll-to-roll processing of digital manufacturing. The main advantages of laser radiation rely in its unique properties: high directionality, coherence and monochromaticity. The combination of such properties allows generating high intensities that can be focused into extremely small volumes, which makes lasers an ideal tool for the processing of materials at the micro- and nano-scale, not only as a subtractive but also as an additive technique. Laser ablation is the best known subtractive technique and it consists in the irradiation of a material with a focused laser beam. In the case of working with transparent materials, surface ablation constitutes a serious challenge since it is necessary to develop new strategies that allow controlling the position where the energy is delivered to ensure that ablation really occurs in the surface without modifying the bulk material. On the other hand, lasers can also be used as additive tools. For example, laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) allows the transfer of materials in both solid and liquid state with high spatial resolution. In spite of the extensive amount of research on LIFT, some challenges still remain. For instance, the understanding of the particular printing dynamics encountered during the high speed printing of liquids, or the problem of printing uniform, continuous and stable lines with high spatial resolution. The objective of this thesis is to propose and implement feasible solutions to some of the challenges that are associated with both the subtractive and additive laser based techniques presented above. On one side, we study the laser ablation of transparent polymers using femtosecond laser pulses with the aim of achieving spatial resolutions that overcome the diffraction limit, and at the same time solving the problem of the required precise focusing of the laser beam on the materials surface. On the other side, we study the LIFT transfer dynamics during the high speed printing of liquids, and we propose alternative printing strategies to solve the inherent quality defects usually encountered during the formation of printed lines. Finally, two different approaches that are a combination of both subtractive and additive techniques are presented; we implement LIFT for the fabrication of liquid microlenses used for the surface nanopatterning of materials, and on the other side, we create fluidic guides by laser ablation for the printing of high quality continuous lines.La fabricació digital de dispositius tecnològics requereix el desenvolupament de noves i millors tècniques per al microprocessament de materials que al mateix temps siguin compatibles amb mètodes de producció en sèrie a gran escala com el roll-to-roll processing. Aquestes tècniques han de complir certs requisits relacionats amb la possibilitat de realitzar canvis de disseny ràpids durant el procés de fabricació, alta velocitat de processament, i al mateix temps permetre la producció de motius de forma controlada amb altes resolucions espacials. En la present tesi es proposen i implementen solucions viables a alguns dels reptes presents a la microfabricació amb làser tant substractiva com additiva. D'una banda, es presenta un nou mètode d'enfocament del feix làser sobre la mostra per l'ablació superficial de materials transparents que permet obtenir resolucions espacials que superen el límit de difracció del dispositiu òptic. D'altra banda, es duu a terme un estudi de la dinàmica de la impressió de líquids mitjançant làser a alta velocitat, de gran interès de cara a la implementació industrial de la tècnica. A més, es presenten estratègies d'impressió de tintes conductores amb l'objectiu de produir línies contínues amb alta qualitat d'impressió. Finalment s'inclouen dues propostes que són producte de la combinació d’ambues tècniques, la impressió de líquids i l'ablació amb làser